The physical downsizing of microprocessor based technologies has led to portable personal computers, pocket secretaries, wireless phones and pagers. All of these devices, and also other devices such as clocks, watches, calculators, etc., have the common need for a low power consumption data display screen to extend the useful working time between battery replacements or battery charges.
The common Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) is often used as the display for such devices. LCDs can be classified based upon the source of illumination. Reflective displays are illuminated by ambient light that enters the display from the front. A reflective surface, such as a brushed aluminum or silver reflector placed behind the LCD assembly, returns light to illuminate the LCD assembly while preserving the polarization orientation of the light incident on the reflective surface. Although reflective displays meet the need for low power consumption, the displays often appear rather dark and are therefore difficult to read. In addition, there are many conditions where there is insufficient ambient light for viewing the display. The purely reflective display is thus limited in usefulness.
In applications where the intensity of ambient light is insufficient for viewing, supplemental lighting, such as a backlight assembly, is used to illuminate the display. The typical backlight assembly includes an optical cavity and a lamp, LED or other structure that generates light. Although supplemental lighting can illuminate a display regardless of ambient lighting conditions, it is an expensive drain on battery life. Thus, the batteries on portable computers, for example, must typically be recharged after 2 to 4 hours of continuous backlight use.
In an attempt to overcome the above described drawbacks of reflective and transmissive displays, some electronic displays have been designed to use ambient light when available and backlighting only when necessary. This dual function of reflection and transmission leads to the designation, “transflective”. One problem with currently available transflective displays is that they have good performance in either reflective or transmissive mode, but not both. This stems from the fact that the backlight assembly is not as efficient a reflector as the back reflector traditionally used in a purely reflective display, and the display thus appears less bright when viewed under ambient light. In addition, many devices with small display screens, such as pagers, use reflective LCDs with a supplemental electroluminescent backlight for low ambient light conditions. The LCD is backed with a plastic film that is partially reflective and partially transmitting. However, the reflective film is only on the order of 50-70% reflective and 20-40% transmissive, and thus is not efficient for either ambient or supplemental lighting conditions.
Another limiting feature of conventional LCDs are the dichroic polarizers conventionally used on both the front side and the rear of the LCD panel. These polarizers most commonly use a dichroic dyed, oriented polymer polarizer that strongly absorbs one polarization of light (>99%) and weakly absorbs the other polarization (5-20%). Liquid crystal displays use two sheets of this type of polarizer combined with a liquid crystal panel to selectively allow transmission of light. The absorption by the dichroic polarizers greatly reduces the brightness and contrast in both reflective and backlit displays.
A transflective display can be made by placing a transflective film between the rear polarizer and the backlight. The transflective film provides a specified trade-off between reflectivity for ambient lighting and transmission for backlit operation. In general, because of the high absorption by the two dichroic polarizers and the transflector, transflective displays are generally not as bright as either purely reflective or purely backlit displays.
Thus, there is a need in the art for visual displays which are more efficient, have low power consumption, and which provide better brightness and increased contrast to produce a more easily read display under both ambient and supplemental lighting conditions.